CHARLES KONG SOO

Se­nior Re­porter

charles.kong­soo@guardian.co.tt

Croy­don was named Lon­don Bor­ough of Cul­ture for 2023, claim­ing the ti­tle from wor­thy com­peti­tors across the cap­i­tal to cop the £1.35M fund­ing award.

The mon­ey will be used to host a se­ries of cul­tur­al events and hun­dreds of com­mu­ni­ty projects.

A new ex­hi­bi­tion at the Mu­se­um of Croy­don high­lights the sto­ries and in­flu­ence of Croy­don res­i­dents who have shaped the bor­ough through their Caribbean roots but are of­ten un­cred­it­ed or un­der-rep­re­sent­ed.

Some of the peo­ple fea­tured in the ex­hi­bi­tion are the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Po­lice’s first fe­male Black po­lice of­fi­cer, the late Sis­lin Fay Allen, sib­ling cham­pi­on box­ers Clin­ton and Duke McKen­zie, and renowned mu­si­cal di­rec­tor, com­pos­er, and per­former, Ken Bur­ton.

A Trinida­di­an, so­ca DJ and pro­duc­er Ché In The Mixx, Ché Leonard, 54, is al­so fea­tured among the Croy­don trail­blaz­ers who have shaped the bor­ough in the ex­hi­bi­tion ti­tled Cit­i­zen UK: Croy­don’s Caribbean In­flu­encers.

The ex­hi­bi­tion is pro­duced in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Mu­se­um of Croy­don, the Na­tion­al Por­trait Gallery, artist Kyam (Ca­ma­ra Pin­nock), Croy­don Po­et Lau­re­ate Shani­qua Ben­jamin, and a lo­cal vol­un­teer group of Cit­i­zen Re­searchers for The May­or of Lon­don’s Lon­don Bor­ough of Cul­ture pro­gramme.

It cre­ative­ly tells these in­spir­ing sto­ries us­ing archive ma­te­r­i­al, spo­ken word by Ben­jamin, and por­traits by Kyam, giv­ing a snap­shot of the lo­cal his­to­ries un­cov­ered.

Speak­ing to the Sun­day Guardian Leonard said “I’m ex­treme­ly de­light­ed to have been se­lect­ed and it is such an ho­n­our to be fea­tured among oth­er ex­cep­tion­al in­di­vid­u­als of Caribbean her­itage who have all made sig­nif­i­cant cul­tur­al con­tri­bu­tions to Britain.

“It is such an ho­n­our to be fea­tured among oth­er ex­cep­tion­al in­di­vid­u­als of Caribbean her­itage who all have made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to Britain through mu­sic, Car­ni­val, po­et­ry and the culi­nary arts.

“It’s hum­bling that my per­son­al jour­ney over three decades has been cap­tured in a full-length in­ter­view, vi­su­al in­stal­la­tion, and short po­em. I’ve been tru­ly proud to show­case my coun­try of birth, Trinidad & To­ba­go, and the wider Caribbean.”

He said even more ex­cit­ing was the news that his record­ing will be shown at the Na­tion­al Por­trait Gallery and housed per­ma­nent­ly in their na­tion­al archives.

“That’s a big deal for a lit­tle boy from San Fer­nan­do, Trinidad!” he added.

He said he was very thank­ful to have been se­lect­ed for this recog­ni­tion and wished to ded­i­cate it to his late par­ents, Win­ston and Jan­ice Leonard, who he knows are al­ways watch­ing over him. His wish is that they con­tin­ue to sleep in eter­nal peace.

Leonard, a Caribbean cul­tur­al in­flu­encer, who has been liv­ing in Eng­land since 1989, al­so pro­duced in con­junc­tion with Machel Mon­tano his Al­ter­na­tive Con­cept con­certs. He lived in the bor­ough of Croy­don and was nom­i­nat­ed to be part of the ex­hi­bi­tion be­cause of his in­volve­ment with mu­sic and food as he was al­so a chef. He is al­so in­volved in Car­ni­val, any­thing to do with the cul­ture of T&T and to a cer­tain ex­tent, the wider Caribbean as he al­so did work for Ja­maica, Bar­ba­dos, and Grena­da.

The ex­hi­bi­tion shows how Caribbean peo­ple have helped in­flu­ence the bor­ough through their di­verse cul­tures and their unique­ness from the var­i­ous Caribbean is­lands.

Leonard ex­plained that the ex­hi­bi­tion is set up like a record shop and the es­tab­lished Caribbean tra­di­tion of shar­ing sto­ries and songs, and vis­i­tors can hear clips of the peo­ple in­ter­viewed and flip through and se­lect al­bums of the Croy­don na­tives.

The walls have por­traits of the peo­ple cre­at­ed by artist Kyam and Croy­don’s first Po­et Lau­re­ate Shani­qua Ben­jamin both used the in­ter­views and sto­ries about each role mod­el, a promi­nent fig­ure, and Croy­don’s Caribbean in­flu­encers as in­spi­ra­tion for their re­spec­tive medi­ums, in Kyam’s paint­ings and Ben­jamin’s po­ems.

Leonard said that the vol­un­teer group Cit­i­zen Re­searchers from the bor­ough of Croy­don with an in­ter­est and con­nec­tion to Caribbean her­itage helped re­search and col­lect new oral his­to­ries of peo­ple bring­ing their Caribbean in­flu­ence to their work, life, and com­mu­ni­ty.

He said the ex­hi­bi­tion al­so co­in­cides with Na­tion­al Win­drush Day on June 22 and will mark the 75th an­niver­sary of the ar­rival of the pas­sen­gers of the Em­pire Win­drush to the UK. The day cel­e­brates the con­tri­bu­tion and achieve­ments of the Win­drush gen­er­a­tion and their de­scen­dants.

Cit­i­zen UK: Caribbean In­flu­encers ex­hi­bi­tion is at the Mu­se­um of Croy­don un­til June 30. Find out more about the pro­gramme for This is Croy­don at cul­ture­croy­don.com and fol­low @cul­ture­croy­don on so­cial me­dia.